That’s presumably because the measures come just over a week after Hunnewell sold Imedi to another close ally of the Ivanishvili regime, while remaining a close business partner of the country’s top oligarch through its other holdings.
A day late, and a dollar short. 9/ENDS
Hunnewell Partners, based in the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea, appears nowhere on the list of sanctioned entities released by the British government on Feb. 24, on the fourth anniversary of the launch of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 8/9
These and other narratives have been consistently used by the Ivanishvili regime to justify flagrant attacks against journalists, political opponents, civil society actors and activists. Georgia now has more political prisoners per capita than Russia. 7/9
Imedi has meanwhile only deepened its campaign against Georgia’s historic Western partners, pushing bullshit conspiracy theories, coined by ruling oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, about a “Global Party of War” hellbent on dragging the country into the war in Ukraine. 6/9
A third story, co-authored with Josimar’s Paul Brown and released in July 2025, delved into Hunnewell’s role in bankrolling a billion-dollar spat between powerful Russian interests through years-long litigation in the UK courts. 5/9
In the aftermath of that investigation, Imedi ran a weeklong smear campaign in an effort to discredit my reporting, and I was banned from returning to Georgia not long after. Almost nine months later, no court date has yet been set for my appeal. 4/9
My second report, published in March 2025, revealed Hunnewell’s secret ties to Kremlin oligarch Roman Abramovich, which had lasted until at least six weeks after the former Chelsea FC owner was sanctioned by the UK in 2022. 3/9
I first reported on Imedi in October 2024, exposing how the UK group behind the network, Hunnewell Partners, was pumping out pro-government disinformation while the regime looked the other way on its alleged exploitation of pensioners through the country’s third largest bank. 2/9
This morning, the UK sanctioned Georgia’s largest broadcaster, Imedi TV. No media organization has done more to amplify the regime’s anti-Western propaganda amid the war on Ukraine, or to rationalize Georgia’s descent into violent authoritarianism. 1/9
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...
A letter to the master of Trinity Hall, in response to her email to alumni regarding the Guardian's reporting this week:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
When they kick you out of Georgia and you make it 9,000 miles to Argentina before the universe starts mocking you…
EXCLUSIVE: A top attorney behind MAGA’s push to see Hunter Biden jailed for violating foreign influence laws was at the same time working for an abusive foreign regime that tried to buy sinister surveillance software in the U.S.
Latest for @thedailybeast
www.thedailybeast.com/magas-hunter...
When journalist @willneal.bsky.social was barred from #Georgia, his life was turned upside down. But for citizens, the country’s slide into violent authoritarianism has left them in a far more dangerous position. Read his account in our latest magazine issue ⬇️
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
It’s been more than four months since I was expelled from Georgia with no word on a hearing date for my appeal. Here’s my latest for Index on Censorship about the ban, and what it says more broadly about the dire situation the country now finds itself in.
papyrus.exacteditions.com/issues/14183...
Spoke with Daniel Boffey for his @theguardian.com piece today on Hunnewell Partners. Good to see the issue getting more attention. Some links to my prior reporting on the group below.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Article doesn't have much that's new for people following #Georgia & reading @willneal.bsky.social coverage of Imedi and Hunnewell but at least brings the malfeasance to an even wider audience.
Pleased that our co-founder @nealysart.bsky.social
contributed to this deep dive by @theobserveruk.bsky.social
on #SpaceX investment fraud from @willneal.bsky.social
Scammers are leveraging AI & sophisticated tactics to defraud investors globally
#osint #investigations #investment #fraud #spaceX
🚨NEW: Amid Musk’s turn to Dark MAGA, the rush for SpaceX shares has seen fraudsters mercilessly targeting investors with no means of buying into the firm’s success. My debut @theobserveruk.bsky.social, on how one group used AI to dupe victims out of millions.👇
observer.co.uk/news/busines...
the entire section is worth reading.
@blairmcdougall.com "The complaint of the democracy activists I used to work with is that all of this brutality is happening while the regime’s money is washed through business associates in London."
Hello @willneal.bsky.social !
No mincing of words there.
Mamuka Mdinaradze, a key architect of Georgia's authoritarian shift, has just been appointed head of the state security service.
Last May, @willneal.bsky.social reported on the government unit funded by Western countries, before being used against them.
newlinesmag.com/reportage/na...
A gripping exposé by @willneal.bsky.social unravels the billion-dollar legal intrigue linking oligarchs, offshore financiers, and sanctioned assets — all playing out in UK courts. A must-read for anyone curious about lawfare, kleptocracy, and shadow geopolitics
But Guriev appears wholly unconvinced the buck stops with Gorbachev, or Kushnir, or Hunnewell, or even 777, suggesting his suspicions may very well be directed elsewhere.
Where exactly, for now, being the billion-dollar question. 13/ENDS
After losing his claim against Guriev, Gorbachev says he now doesn’t have the funds to meet the roughly £12 million awarded to the Kremlin oligarch in damages, after Kushnir, Hunnewell and 777 all inexplicably stopped financing his legal costs back in May 2023. 12/13
Blazquez first met Rukhadze in Tbilisi sometime in the early 2000s. Public rulings from separate UK proceedings show Blazquez later went on to assist Hunnewell tracking down or managing assets on behalf of late Georgian oligarch Arkady Patarkatsishvili’s family. 11/13
The request that 777 be brought in on the funding deal appears to have come off the back of Hunnewell co-founder Irakli Rukhadze’s close friendship with one of the Miami group’s operating partners, Andres Blazquez. 10/13
Currently the target of a money laundering investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, 777 has a long history of dealings with now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including key Putin confidant Gennady Timchenko and billionaire fintech entrepreneur Oleg Boyko. 9/13
